No, not Erin on the ninja vs. pirate question, it was me:) Ok on a more serious level, how did you end up in Atlanta??? Do you like it?
If you’d asked me ten years ago, I would never in a million years said that I would ever be living in Georgia! Sometimes I tell people that I moved here for a job; it’s just easier to explain and seems more logical.
In actuality, there’s not much to it. I moved to Atlanta for no reason whatsoever and seven and half years later, I’m still here. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than that, I guess. I went to college in Vermont. When I graduated, I applied for several internships in Boston but I didn’t get any. I did, however, get an internship in my hometown of Bethesda, MD. So I moved back home. I think everyone has a hard time getting used to the daily grind of a 9-5 job after college. I didn’t deal with it well though. Most of my friends from school were in New England or New York and although I was still friends with some high school buddies, we’d spent four years apart and we’d all changed. My internship lasted about three months. I wanted them to hire me on, but they didn’t. Looking back, I can completely see why. I was much more interested in making friends with the other interns than working! (The company folded eventually anyway.) So I got a job in a restaurant to make ends meet and to meet more people. I was living at home for free, but really wanted to get an apartment with a friend.
After a few months, I got my first real job. I was a graphic designer for the marketing art department of a newspaper. Sounds way cooler than it was. There are two major newspapers in DC. Actually, I take that back, there’s really just one. I worked for the other one. I moved into an apartment with my friend Margaret in a suburb. I had a job in DC, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I hated my job. I hated living in the ‘burbs. I just wanted a change.
It’s funny that I thought my friend Erin wrote that ninja question, because she has a lot to do with my journey to Atlanta. Erin and I were really good friends in high school and she had gone to Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. I’d visited her a few times and really liked the city. Somehow, I got it in my head that I wanted to move here. For a while, I talked about it but it was just talk and no one took me seriously. I tried to look for jobs but couldn’t find anyone who was willing to interview a newspaper graphic designer who didn’t live in the area. I went back and forth with what I wanted to do. Some days, I was dead-set on moving. Others, I would think that if I just got a new job, I’d stay in DC. When our apartment lease was up, I didn’t want to be tied down for another year, so I moved back in with my mother.
I’m not sure how all my Atlanta talk actually became a reality. Erin was looking for a roommate and once I realized that I would have a place to live, I quit my job and just did it. I put all of my stuff into a U-haul and made the 11-hour drive with my father and brother. I know it was much more of a lengthy process than that, but honestly, I don’t remember!
Moving to a new city was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I thought that all of Erin’s friends would immediately be my friends, but that didn’t happen. I thought I’d find a job right away, but that didn’t happen either. I had to wait tables for six months or so. I had saved up quite a bit of money from living with my mom rent-free, so I had a bit of a cushion, but it was quickly dwindling. After a while, I got another graphic design job and things started to fall into place, albeit slowly.
I’m not sure when I felt like I really belonged in Atlanta. Throughout the years, I’ve made a lot of friends here and I do feel like it’s my home. (Although I still refer to MD as home as well.) The 5 million dollar question remains; will I stay in Atlanta forever? I mean, considering we’re trying to buy a house, we don’t have any plans to leave. That’s not to say that we never will. I do miss my family and it’s hard to be 500 + miles away from them and only see them a few times a year. If all the stars aligned a certain way and Jason and were both offered great jobs in DC, I’d probably think long and hard about moving back. But for now, we enjoy our lives in Atlanta and aren’t really going anywhere.
Boy, that was a long answer to a seemingly simple question, huh?
So, those little pizza slices just didn’t do it for me last night. I was just having one of those ravenous days. Maybe from hot yoga the night before. I made the unwise decision of eating at least 2.5 servings of Go Lean Crunch. Fiber overload! My stomach was not pleased with me after that and I did not go to the gym to run my 6-mile tempo run like planned. But no fear, I went today after work and pounded it out on the treadmill. I ran the 4-mile tempo portion at a 6.1 pace and a 1 mile warm up and cool down at a 5.5 pace. I like tempo and speedwork days because the time really flies by. I did three miles on one treadmill, got off and filled up my water bottle and did the remaining three on another. That really broke up the run and I kept telling myself that I only had to run three miles (for each portion). I have an eight mile run to do on Sunday. I am going to plan a different route and I’m really curious what the difference in time will be from last weekend.
Ps – I kind of hate John Mayer. I just thought that song would make a good post title.